The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

Title: The Bone Witch

Author: Rin Chupeco
Length: 400 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Classification: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal
Release Date: March 7, 2017
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you, Sourcebooks!)

The beast raged; it punctured the air with its spite. But the girl was fiercer.
Tea is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy makes her a bone witch, who are feared and ostracized in the kingdom. For theirs is a powerful, elemental magic that can reach beyond the boundaries of the living—and of the human.
Great power comes at a price, forcing Tea to leave her homeland to train under the guidance of an older, wiser bone witch. There, Tea puts all of her energy into becoming an asha, learning to control her elemental magic and those beasts who will submit by no other force. And Tea must be strong—stronger than she even believes possible. Because war is brewing in the eight kingdoms, war that will threaten the sovereignty of her homeland…and threaten the very survival of those she loves.

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***


I wasn't sure what to expect when I first started reading The Bone Witch. I was super excited because the synopsis sounds awesome and the cover is stunning. I was really hoping to fall in love with The Bone Witch. 

But unfortunately, I had an extremely hard time getting into the story. I started reading it in February and it took me just over a month to finish reading it. I even contemplated giving up and not finishing. But I dislike not finishing reading books that I have started and I didn't hate what I was reading. The plot of the story really intrigued me and I wanted to find out what was going to happen. So you might be wondering why it took me so long to read if I was still so interested to find out what happens. Overall, I think my main difficulty was that a lot of the story is very detailed descriptions and not a whole lot of action. 
I was also a bit thrown by how the story is told. The Bone Witch alternates between younger Tea to older Tea and the Bard. The older Tea/Bard chapters are almost like an interview where Tea is telling the Bard about her life. It didn't really take away from the story for me, but it did take a few chapters for me to get used to it. 
About 60% into the story is where I started to feel more connected with the characters and what was happening. There was more character and relationship development. There was more action. Yes, the story still had a lot of descriptions, but I was really starting to enjoy what I was reading. I started to get hooked to the story and finding out what was going to happen. In fact, I read the last 40% of the story in just a few days.
I did like the characters. I really think Tea is a good main character. She has a lot of character growth throughout the story. Which I liked a lot. I also enjoyed the relationship developments between Tea and the other characters in the story. It wasn't hard for me to care about her and want to know what was going to happen to her. 
My favorite thing about The Bone Witch was the ending. What an ending! I was completely hooked by it and now I want to know what is going to happen next. I definitely have plans to read the next book to find out what will happen. I just hope it is more like the last 40% of the story.

My Recommendation:

I felt very disconnected from the characters and the story for a while. It also took me a very long time to get through the first 60% of the story. I became hooked on the last 40%. I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen and even read that part of the story in just a couple of days. The thing that kept me from loving The Bone Witch was all of the very detailed descriptions. I do like detailed stories, but this felt like an overload of detail which made the story feel slow and boring. I am really glad that I reached a point where I really enjoyed reading it. The last 40% definitely redeemed the story for me and has made me want to read a sequel, if there is going to be one. If you don't mind slow stories with a lot of details, then I think that you may really enjoy reading this one and should check it out. 

My Rating: